OUR PLAN
to address houselessness in Deschutes County
Over a series of public meetings and public work sessions, the Emergency Houselessness Task Force crafted a strategic plan to quickly address the crisis in the short term. In the long term, the plan aims to disrupt the status quo that feeds houselessness.
Here is a brief look at what the Strategic Plan entails.
1. Coordinate our efforts and funding.
A collaborative houseless response office led by the County and City or Cities can help streamline the work of dozens of organizations serving our region’s houseless population.
Members of the Emergency Houselessness Task Force identified the gaps in services, competing objectives, and duplication of efforts in our region’s response to houselessness. This level of inefficiency is inescapable when dozens of nonprofits, volunteer organizations, and faith groups are all trying to tackle the same problem without strategic leadership. Government is better positioned to steer regional efforts, and local groups are aligned in their desire for city or cities and county government agencies to devise and execute a county-wide strategy.
Deschutes County and the Cities of Bend, La Pine, Redmond, and Sisters worked together to secure $1 million in state funding (HB 4123) over two years to operationalize a coordinated office to strengthen its communities’ houseless response.
The creation of a collaborative houseless response office is a key point of the Strategic Plan. The office would help streamline the efforts of dozens of local community partners and also collaborate with regional groups such as Housing For All, Central Oregon Health Council, and Homeless Leadership Coalition.
The office would also coordinate funding by aligning state, county, and city resources. This level of funding coordination will also support the development of more affordable housing.
Elaine Knobbs-Seasholtz, Mosaic Medical’s Director of Strategy and Development summed up: “We’re stronger when we work together.”
Managed by REACH, the Safe Parking Program offers safe parking for people experiencing houselessness. The program has been successful in helping people transition back into housing. REACH is working with property owners to expand the Safe Parking Program in Bend and Redmond.
2. Enlist the community.
How quickly we are able to solve houselessness depends on the broader community.
Our community has created and supported many local nonprofits serving our houseless neighbors.
Bethlehem Inn was founded by the community to give individuals and families without housing a warm, safe place to sleep, nourishing meals, and case management services. “This life-saving and life-changing work could not be done without the generosity of the community,” says Gwenn Wysling, Bethlehem Inn’s Executive Director.
Family Kitchen is another example of a nonprofit founded and supported by the community. Started in 1986 by six women from Trinity Episcopal Church, today Family Kitchen brings together 400 volunteers and more than 60 partners—from churches to businesses to nonprofits—to serve over 7,000 nutritious meals each month in Bend, Redmond, and Sisters. “At Family Kitchen, community involvement is everything,” says Donna Burklo, Family Kitchen’s program director. “When community members serve with us, negative assumptions about our diners are shattered and interest in solutions increases.”
What’s needed now is an even broader community response to meet this growing crisis. Businesses can offer up parking lots and unused buildings for temporary shelters, for example. Other proposed solutions, such as constructing managed villages like the Veterans Village, can move forward more quickly with community support. Cities are actively trying to address this crisis of houselessness, but some solutions are prompting push-back from neighbors who stand to be impacted. There is also a lot of fear, which is not always grounded in fact. Across Deschutes County, there is broad community consensus that something needs to be done, but our progress will be hindered as long as the public holds a “not in my backyard” mindset.
“We believe people should not have to live on the streets. And we support solutions that help people be safe, housed and stable.”
Local businesses are also grappling with the issue of houselessness. “Some of our businesses have been notably impacted,” says Katy Brooks, CEO for the Bend Chamber. “With 1,200 members, there are naturally a range of opinions on how to address this problem. But there is also solid consensus. We all agree that this is a human crisis in our community. We believe people should not have to live on the streets. And we support solutions that help people be safe, housed, and stable.”
It’s clear our community needs to work together, think outside the box, and generally be more open-minded.
This point of the Strategic Plan calls for enlisting school districts, faith-based organizations, neighborhood groups, landlords, local businesses, and other community partners. Says Bend City Manager Eric King, “It really is up to all of us to meet the moment and address houselessness together.”
3. Expand services.
We can prevent recurring houselessness by offering wrap-around support and services. And we can reduce chronic houselessness by providing permanent supportive housing for our most vulnerable people.
“Solving houselessness is not as simple as getting people into housing,” explains Colleen Thomas, Deschutes County’s Homeless Community Outreach Supervisor. “Homelessness impacts people in a multitude of ways, and they need extended support in order to regain their stability and rebuild their lives.”
Taking a holistic approach and “wrapping” people with services is the best way to ensure long-term success. There are dozens of organizations providing outreach services to our local houseless population. The Mosaic Medical Mobile Clinic provides health care support and monitors people with chronic health issues such as kidney disease, diabetes, and cancer. REACH guides people through the process of replacing lost or stolen IDs. Deschutes County provides individual therapy, group therapy, psychiatry, case management, and peer support. According to Thomas, someone experiencing houselessness might also need resumé coaching, parenting classes, respite care, treatment for addiction, or transportation.
The strategic plan proposes establishing an office led by the County and City or Cities to help coordinate services. Better coordination will ensure people get the services they need with fewer disruptions. Funding for long-term case management can prevent people from falling through the cracks.
“There are precious few housing options for people who are not capable of living independently.”
Embracing a model of Permanent Supportive Housing can finally address the long-term housing needs of individuals with extreme disabilities or ongoing mental health issues. “There have been precious few housing options for people who are not capable of living independently,” explains Patty Wilson, Deputy Executive Director of NeighborImpact. “They’ve been left to struggle on their own, and many are homeless as a result.” As the name implies, Permanent Supportive Housing would provide these vulnerable members of our community with permanent housing and supportive services.
The strategic plan calls for project development and community investment in Permanent Supportive Housing.
4. Find space for the unsheltered.
With extreme weather threatening hundreds of people, finding and building more shelters is a top priority.
There is a call to the community to help find stop-gap solutions to keep houseless people safe during the winter. “Infrastructure takes time to build, but we have an urgent need now to shelter people from freezing temps, or people will die”, says Patty Wilson, NeighborImpact’s Deputy Executive Director. Local housing advocates have asked business owners, landowners, and faith organizations to offer up empty buildings and parking lots for temporary outdoor and warming shelters.
All too can agree that no one should be sleeping on sidewalks. And that criminalizing houselessness is expensive, prolongs houselessness, and is unconstitutional. Per federal court rulings (Martin v. Boise), a local government’s ability to regulate sleeping in its public places is directly related to a community’s ability to provide shelter for individuals who might otherwise need to use public places to sleep.
Increasing the number of shelters is an ongoing focus for NeighborImpact, Shepherd’s House, Bethlehem Inn, St. Vincent De Paul, local government agencies, and other housing organizations and houseless service providers. REACH is seeking to expand safe parking areas for people living in their vehicles (such as the parking area pictured above).
Do you have a building, parking lot, or tract of land that could be used to temporarily shelter the houseless? Email Emergency Homelessness Task Force.
5. Focus on affordable housing.
Prioritize affordable housing and greater stability for renters.
The housing supply is not matching demand generally and that is part of the reason rents are going up across the board and displacing people. We need more market-rate housing too. We need it all.
“Houselessness will continue to be a crisis in our community as long as we have a deficit of affordable housing,” says City of Bend Housing Director Lynne McConnell. “We need to ramp up our supply of affordable housing so that low and middle-income families can thrive here.”
There are several affordable housing projects already in the works. Deschutes County just approved $7.8 million in funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to support a number of affordable housing projects in Bend, Redmond, La Pine, Sunriver, and Sisters. These projects will generate more than 600 affordable housing units which could help house upwards of 1000 people.
The City of Bend is working to increase affordable housing supply as an ongoing strategy to address the symptoms of houselessness. The City partners with developers of affordable housing and make code changes and policies that impact the cost of housing. The City does not manage facilities or provide social services but does support nonprofit service providers with funding.
“Decisions we make today are going to affect our housing supply five years from now.”
According to McConnell, “Decisions we make today are going to affect our housing supply five years from now.” McConnell is encouraged by the level of interest in affordable housing from local builders. “We just need to commit the funding and set the table for developments to take off.”
The Strategic Plan calls for local governments to project housing gaps through 2032, and work with partners to secure financing and funding to meet the forecasted need for affordable housing.
The plan also calls for dismantling harmful eviction policies that perpetuate houselessness and increasing rental assistance programs to ensure families aren’t displaced.
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At North Medford High School, for example, homeless students have a dedicated space they can use to ask for tutoring help, assistance finding new housing, look through racks of clothing donations or simply have a quiet place to study. Fallon Stewart, a program supervisor with the nonprofit, says 98% of the students assisted by the Maslow Project go on to graduate.
Thank you to the following organizations for their partnership with the Emergency Houselessness Task Force, and for contributing to this presentation:
The Emergency Homelessness Task Force convened by Deschutes County and the City of Bend: Bethlehem Inn, City of Bend Human Rights and Equity Commission, City of Bend Police Department, City of Redmond, Central Oregon Frequent Users System Engagement (FUSE), Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council (COIC), Central Oregon Veterans Outreach (COVO), Deschutes County Behavioral Health Services, Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, Homeless Leadership Coalition (HLC), Housing Works, JBarJ, Jericho Road, Mosaic Medical, NeighborImpact, PacificSource, Relationship Empowerment Action Compassion Heart (REACH), Shepherd’s House Ministries, St. Charles Health, The Helpers, and facilitator Brittani Manzo Consulting.